USA > Iowa > Franklin County > History of Franklin County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 15
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In this expedition the Thirty-second Iowa suffered more severely perhaps than any other regiment in the expedition. It formed a part of Gen. A. J. Smith's command, consisting of 10,000 infantry and three batteries of artillery, which left Vicksburg on March 9th, on transports, accompanied by gunboats. At the mouth of Red river this fleet was joined by Admiral D. D. Porter, with a large fleet, including several ironclads. Some miles from where the Red river enters into the Mississippi it separates into two streams, which come together again very near the mouth. From the southern one of these two streams flows Achafalaya river. The fleet entered Red river by the southern stream and passed thence into Achafalaya, pro- ceeding as far as Semmesport, where the troops disembarked on the
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night of the 13th, and immediately commenced a march on Fort De Russey. The halt was not ordered till the army had marched some seven miles. It was twenty-eight miles from here to Fort De Russey. Nevertheless, the army marched that distance the next day, constantly harassed by rebel cavalry. It was delayed once for two hours at a stream over which a bridge had to be made; attacked the fort and carried it by storm before sundown, and before the gun- boats arrived. In this assault, the Thirty-second was on the right, and "the men on the right took the fort," said the prisoners. Colonel Shaw, commanding brigade, speaks in unqualified praise of all the officers and men in his command. The loss was slight on either side. Of the Thirty-second, one man was killed and two were wounded.
At Fort De Russey, it reembarked and proceeded to Alexandria, where the troops again disembarked and remained nearly two weeks. At this point the column under General Smith formed a junction with the column which had marched from New Orleans. The boats could not be taken over the rapids while laden, so the troops marched to Cotile Landing, some twenty-five miles up the river. Here the regiment had its first battalion drill, with all the companies in line, since leaving Dubuque, in November, 1862. On April 3d, the com- mand again embarked and reached Grand 'Ecore on the next evening, where it remained till the morning of the 7th, when it marched to the front of the battle of Pleasant Hill, where the brigade to which the Thirty-second belonged, commanded by Colonel Shaw of the Four- teenth Iowa, stood the brunt of the fight, being the first in the battle, fighting longer than any other, in the hardest of the contest, the last to leave the field, and losing three times as many officers and men as any brigade engaged.
"Of Col. John Scott, Thirty-second Iowa," says the brigade commander, "it is sufficient to say that he showed himself worthy to command the Thirty-second Iowa Infantry-a regiment which, after having been entirely surrounded and cut off from the rest of the command, with nearly one-half of its number killed or wounded, among them many of the best and prominent officers, forced its way through the enemy's lines, and was again in line, ready and anxious to meet the foe in less than thirty minutes." It is certain no regiment ever fought with a sublimer courage than did the Thirty-second on the battlefield of Pleasant Hill. Its heroism and its sacrifices were worthy of a better fate than a retreat from the scene of its splendid daring and its glory. The fame of its gallant conduct spread
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all over Iowa, as it would have spread over the whole country had the commanding general accepted the victory which the troops had given him. But sad losses befell the regiment. Lieutenant Colonel Mix was slain on the field, also many of the officers were either slain or wounded. The regiment lost, in all, 210 officers and men, killed, wounded and missing. Most of the missing were also wounded-any so reported, no doubt slain. Iowa gloried in the fame of her honored sons, and wept for their dead comrades who fell on the stricken field.
Colonel Shaw's Brigade covered the retreat of the army to Grand 'Ecore, when the Thirty-second Regiment, after a movement up Red river to aid the fleet in escaping from imminent peril, went into en- campment. It joined in the retreat down the Red river on the 21st, and frequently met light bodies of the enemy in skirmish. The re- treat from Alexandria to the Mississippi was harassed by the enemy, and considerable skirmishing took place at Bayou La Morge, Marks- ville and Bayou de Glaize, in both of which the regiment took part. Colonel Shaw in his report of the latter battle said :
"To Colonel Gilbert, Twenty-seventh Iowa, Major Eberhart of the Thirty-second Iowa, Captain Crane of the Fourteenth Iowa, and their commands, is due the safety of the army. Had they failed to move into the position assigned them (although a difficult one, that of changing from under fire) with less celerity, or failed to hold it steadily after taking it, our left and rear would have been enveloped by overwhelming numbers, and nothing could have saved us-not even the fighting qualities of the Sixteenth Army Corps."
The regiment reached Memphis on the roth of June; from there the command moved to Moscow, and thence to La Grange in the latter part of June. From this point it marched with General Smith's forces on the Tupelo campaign. It returned to Memphis and hav- ing encamped there about ten days, joined in the Oxford expedition. The next active campaign in which the Thirty-second took part was in Missouri in the pursuit of Price. It was a campaign of severe marching for the infantry, but not of battle. The regiment, not well provided for such a campaign, marched at least six hundred and fifty miles, averaging twenty miles a day. It marched across the state and back again. Halting a few days at St. Louis, it moved to Cairo by steamer, arriving November 27th.
From there it moved to Nashville, which was soon afterwards besieged by the rebel General Hood. In the battle of Nashville, December 15th and 16th, the Thirty-second, fighting in General Gil- bert's Brigade, was warmly engaged and won great credit for daring,
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efficient behavior. It captured a battery of five guns and many pris- oners, and lost about twenty-five killed and wounded. With the pur- suit of the defeated rebels closed the campaigning of the regiment for the year 1864, in face of the enemy.
Early in 1865, the regiment marched to Clifton, Tennessee, whence it moved by steamer to Eastport, Mississippi. Its next and last campaign was that of Mobile, under Maj. Gen. E. R. S. Canby. Throughout those laborious and difficult operations, the Thirty- second performed its part faithfully, skilfully and honorably. It remained in Alabama some time after the fall of Mobile and was mustered out at Clinton, Iowa, August 24, 1865. Returning to Iowa, the Thirty-second was in due time disbanded, the officers and men left from the ravages of three years' service, receiving everywhere along the line of their journey the kind greetings and hearty welcome of a gratful people, whose hearts had been with them through all their hardships.
FORTY-FOURTH INFANTRY (ONE HUNDRED DAY MEN)
Company G-Second lieutenant, Daniel W. Dow. Privates : J. C. Button; Jesse R. Dodd; D. C. Knapp; Harrison McCord; Matthew McCord; L. S. Sayre; J. W. Yost.
FIRST CAVALRY
Company C-Private: Michael Seyb.
Company G-Private: George F. Wass.
Company M-First lieutenant, E. A. Dunham.
SECOND CAVALRY
Company A-Private : A. J. Dalrymple.
Company F-Private: Lorenzo Cobb.
FOURTH CAVALRY
Company L-Quartermaster sergeant, George W. Thompson; sergeant, Thomas H. Davis ; corporal, Thomas G. Warren. Privates : C. A. Bald ; James H. Beed ; Richard Davenport; Thomas H. Davis; A. Gillett; Charles Gillett; Richard Miller; Emile Myers; A. P.
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Peabody; John Shill; James Staley; Orin A. Thatcher; D. O. Waters.
SIXTH CAVALRY
Privates : Jesse R. Dodd ; L. R. Foby.
EIGHTH CAVALRY
Company G-Second sergeant, John W. Miller. Privates : Riley Miller ; Orson G. Reeve.
NINTH CAVALRY
Company G-Fourth sergeant, William B. Johnson; Hiram F. Coon, M. V. Johnson.
THIRD BATTERY IOWA LIGHT ARTILLERY
Privates : William Murphy, John H. Scott, G. W. Soper, John Swanagan.
NORTHERN BORDER BRIGADE
Company C-Privates : Samuel N. Guilliams ; Franklin Osborn.
ROLL OF HONOR
The following comprises a list of those gallant soldiers who left their homes and took up the musket for the defense of their country's honor, never to return, who laid down their lives in defense of the Union. "It is sweet and honorable to die for one's country," should be engraved over the grave of each, in characters that will remain throughout all coming time and proclaim to all the future genera- tions their noble sacrifice :
Capt. James B. Reeve, died of congestive fever, at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, January 24, 1863.
Sergt. Russell T. Knight, died December 22, 1862, at Yackona Creek, Mississippi, of inflammation of the bowels.
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Corp. Daniel J. Boyles, died October 9, 1863, at Memphis, Ten- nessee, of wounds.
John W. Brown, died at Griswoldville, Georgia, November 22, 1864, of wounds.
William W. Scott, died of phthisis pulmonalis, at Tipton, Mis- souri, February 8, 1862.
George F. Scott was killed in action, May 27, 1864, at Resaca, Georgia.
Sergt. Edwin H. Sporling, died of fever, at Bathville, Arkansas, June 2, 1862.
Corp. John G. Mitchell, died April 2, 1863, at St. Louis, Mis- souri, of diarrhoea.
Fernando T. Reeve, died at Andersonville, Georgia, September 21, 1864, of dibilitas.
James H. Riddle, died of wounds, at Vicksburg, Mississippi, June 3, 1863.
Corp. James M. Paige, died May 17, 1863, at Champion Hills, Mississippi, of wounds.
Elias Moon, died June 14, 1862, at Atlanta, Georgia, of starva- tion while a prisoner of war.
Sergt. Benjamin H. Pound, died at Fish River, Alabama, March 23, 1865, of dropsy of the heart.
John B. Woodward, died of wounds, April 12, 1864, at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana.
Joseph Ward was killed in action at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, April 9, 1864.
George W. Ross was killed in the battle of Pleasant Hill, Louis- iana, April 9, 1864.
John D. Baker was killed by guerrillas at Island No. 10, Oc- tober 22, 1863.
Hiram Brotherton died at Dubuque, November 4, 1862, of pneumonia.
William Ball, died of disease, at Columbus, Kentucky, February 2, 1863.
Cyrus Boyles, died April 1, 1863, at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, of typhoid fever.
Seth K. Capron, died March 5, 1865, at Memphis, Tennessee, of disease.
Daniel W. Cole was killed in battle, April 9, 1864, at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana.
MEMORIAL HALL, HAMPTON
CEMETERY, HAMPTON
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Oliver Clinesmith, died of disease, at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, April 29, 1863.
Loren Collins, died May 4, 1864, at Mound City, Illinois, of disease.
Henry Creighton, died at Memphis, Tennessee, May 17, 1864.
Elemuel W. Crosby, killed in battle at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, April 9, 1864.
George W. Fry, killed in battle at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, April 9, 1864.
Jesse Horner, killed April 9, 1864, at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana.
David L. Hartgrave, died of disease, July 29, 1864, at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri.
Thomas I. Herman, died May 28, 1864, in Franklin county, Iowa.
Warren Kittell, died of disease, July 17, 1864, at Memphis, Tennessee.
Ralph A. Lord, died February 15, 1865, at Memphis, Tennessee.
Ira McCord, killed in action at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, April 9, 1864.
William C. Manifold, died of measles, March 13, 1863, at Mem- phis, Tennessee.
Willard Mulkins, died of disease, at Memphis, Tennessee, July
24, 1864.
Isaac C. Mulkins, died April 9, 1864, at Fort De Russey, Louis- iana, of typhoid fever.
Arba A. Merriss, killed in battle at Lake Chicot, Arkansas, June 6, 1864.
W. R. C. Mitchell, died April 30, 1865, at Fort Gaines, Alabama, of wounds.
David Perry, died of disease, July 26, 1864, at Memphis, Ten- nessee.
Richard Penney, died at Memphis, Tennessee, March 16, 1864, of disease.
Henry W. Smith, died at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, April 23, 1864, of wounds.
Charles Gillett, died at Clear Creek, Mississippi, June 21, 1863, of congestive chills.
Martin V. Johnson, died September 12, 1864, at Duval's Bluff, Arkansas, of chronic diarrhoea.
William Murphy, died of disease, August 14, 1863, at Memphis, Tennessee.
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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
J. W. MCKENZIE POST, G. A. R., NO. 81
The first post of the Grand Army of the Republic was organized at Decatur, Illinois, April 6, 1866, by Benjamin F. Stephenson, originator of the order, its first commander in chief and first com- mander department of Illinois. The charter members of the premier post were Col. J. C. Pugh, M. F. Kanan, G. R. Steele, George H. Dunning, J. H. Nale, J. T. Bishop, Christian Riebsame, J. W. Routh, B. F. Sibley, J. N. Coltron, Joseph Prior and A. Tolana. The last of this guard, Christian Riebsame, bivouacked with the dead, at Bloomington, Illinois, in 1912.
Soon after the order of the Grand Army of the Republic had been instituted, or in 1867, a post was organized in Hampton. But its members, like those of other posts throughout the country, per- mitted politics to creep into and interfere with their fraternal delib- eraions. This fatal error created dissensions, bitterness of feeling between comrades and opposition to the order on the part of veterans who held aloof from the society. As a consequence, the local post and many others surrendered their charters, but most of them were eventually reorganized under more stringent rules.
J. W. Mckenzie Post, No. 81, came into existence in June, 1881, adopting its name in honor of J. W. Mckenzie, who served in the signal corps during the Civil war and was a resident of Hampton at the time of his death, which took place in 1881. Capt. Rufus Benson, the first commander and one of the charter members, served from 1882 till 1885. His successors were the following named com- rades : Col. C. W. Boutin, who served in 1885 and 1886. The others all served one year each. L. B. Raymond, Louis Elsefer, M. H. Ross, L. J. Kron, B. F. Ferris, J. W. Bailey, A. C. Boals, T. E. B. Hudson, W. L. Burres, J. C. Ferris, William Savidge, J. C. Magee, E. J. Stonebrake, R. E. McCrillis, D. W. Dow, J. R. Fowler, John Foughty, J. M. Myers, T. I. Wade, J. H. Hutchins, John M. Watt, D. B. Henderson, D. H. Sanford, N. B. Claypool, Levi L. Conner, Henry D. Brown and D. B. Henderson, the present incumbent. The post now has fifty-one members.
Mc KENZIE RELIEF CORPS, NO. 81
The woman's auxiliary to the Grand Army post, Mckenzie Re- lief Corps, was organized October 23, 1886, with nineteen charter members. The first officers were : President, Miss Effie Reeve ;
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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
senior vice president, Mrs. Rachel North; junior vice president, Miss Inez Myers ; conductor, Mrs. Eliza Ross ; secretary, Miss Etta Reeve; treasurer, Mrs. Mary L. Raymond; chaplain, Mrs. I. W. Myers; guard, Mrs. Avis Ward; assistant guard, Mrs. Mattie French. Names of the successors to the first president follow: Mrs. Effie Reeve Mallory, Mrs. Mary McCardell, Mrs. L. M. Mckenzie, Mrs. Mary L. Raymond, Mrs. Mattie French, Mrs. Mary L. Raymond, Mrs. Mattie French, Mrs. Emma L. Whitcombe, Mrs. Sarah J. Luke, two years, Mrs. Mary L. Raymond, Mrs. Helen M. Sweet, two years, Mrs. Mattie French, Mrs. Alice F. Myers, two years, Mrs. Hannah Bender, Mrs. Clara Phelps, Mrs. Eliza Fowler, Mrs. Alice F. Myers, Mrs. Clara Watt, Mrs. Fannie F. Wade, Mrs. Alice F. Myers, Mrs. Marion S. Johnston, Mrs. Ella Roberts, two years, Mrs. Fannie Wade, two years, and the present incumbent. The tenure of office is one year. The corps has a membership of thirty-five.
For some years the post had headquarters in a hall on Reeve street, but in January, 1889, permanent headquarters were occupied in Memorial Hall, which had been secured for the veterans by and through the generosity of Franklin county and the town of Hampton.
In 1884 a law was passed by the General Assembly of Iowa, au- thorizing counties at their discretion to vote a tax not exceeding $3,000 for the erection of a soldiers' monument, upon which should be engraved the names of all deceased soldiers in the county, or those who should die thereafter. In the session of the General Assembly of 1886, primarily through the labors of Capt. R. S. Benson, then the Representative from Franklin county, the law was so amended as to allow the erection of a hall instead of a monument, so that at the annual spring election of 1887, in accordance with a petition signed by nearly every member of the Grand Army in Franklin county, the board of supervisors submitted the question of voting a tax of one mill for the purpose of erecting a monument or hall, which was carried by a large majority. The funds, however, were not available until after the expiration of a year.
At a mass meeting held in Hampton, in December, 1888, the de- cision was then and there arrived at to erect a hall, and the tax col- lected to be applied toward meeting the expense thereof. Three trustees were appointed to take charge of the work and consisted of Louis Elsefer, George R. Miner and B. F. Ferris. This board of trustees was assisted by an advisory board. It transpired that no suitable building could be erected for less than the tax collected. The post had not the means to secure a site, so that the project at
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the time bid fair to meet complete failure. While in this dilemma, the council of Hampton came to the rescue and donated the beautiful site on the corner of Main and Fifth streets. Here a substantial brick structure was erected, on the top and in the center of which stands on guard a heroic effigy of a soldier of the Civil war. The building was completed by the contractor, E. C. Keifer, in Janu- ary, 1890, and soon thereafter occupied, but the dedicatory services did not take place until August 27, 1890, when a number of visiting posts took a prominent part. It might be well here to state that at the time of its erection, the Hampton Memorial Hall was the first one built in the State of Iowa.
SOLDIERS' MONUMENT
On Memorial day, May 30, 1907, a granite monument was un- veiled by the Woman's Relief Corps in Hampton cemetery. This work of the sculptor's art and skill was secured through the untiring and patriotic efforts of the members of the Woman's Relief Corps, and the eleven hundred dollars paid for the loving gift was raised in the various ways peculiar to the energetic and never-failing ef- forts of the so-called weaker sex in every community of this home- and-country loving land. The monument will endure as a memorial to the unknown heroes who laid down their lives on the battlefields of the Civil war. It should also be a reminder of the many heart sorrows, trials and indefatigable helpfulness of womankind, during that great struggle and ever since the white dove of peace hovered over the land.
COMPANY D, SIXTH REGIMENT IOWA NATIONAL GUARDS
This company was organized August 6, 1877, and assigned to the First Regiment and lettered H, which it retained until 1889, when it was changed to D.
The territory which the Sixth Regiment occupied comprised the twenty-seven northwest counties of the state, being bounded on the north by the Minnesota line, and extending eastward so as to include Mitchell county, those on the east and south boundary of that county, those south of the line between Gerro Gordo and Floyd, Franklin and Butler counties; those west between Franklin and Hardin coun- ties ; south between Hardin and Hamilton counties; and those west to the Missouri river to the boundary line between Woodbury and
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Monona counties; and those north along the west boundary of the state. Its headquarters were at Hampton.
Both its colonel, C. W. Boutin, and lieutenant colonel, L. B. Ray- mond, were residents of Hampton.
A few years before his death, Mr. Raymond was elected state commander of Iowa, of the Grand Army of the Republic. A num- ber of years ago the headquarters of the Sixth Regiment were re- moved from Hampton, and Company D has no longer a place in local history.
Vol. 1-11
CHAPTER X
REMINISCENT-LEANDER REEVE HARKS BACK TO THE EARLY DAYS- AMONG MANY THINGS TELLS OF HUNTING BUFFALO-JOB GARNER PREACHES FOR A FARM-TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS.
Mention already has been made of Leander C. Reeve, a brother of the pioneer. He came to the county in the spring of 1853 and joined the James B. Reeve family, later making a claim on the tract of land which S. H. Carter subsequently secured and on which he lived for many years. Here Mr. Reeve remained until a certain period in the year 1857, when he returned with his family to Ashta- bula county, Ohio, whence he came. When the Civil war broke out, Mr. Reeve enlisted and attained the rank of captain in the One Hun- dred and Seventy-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry. After the ces- sation of hostilities between the states he returned to his Ohio home and through industry and great probity of character became pros- perous and influential. His neighbors' estimation of his character and abilities assumed concrete form when they placed him in posi- tions of trust and importance, sending him to the State Legislature in 1890-4 and returning him to local offices for which he was admir- ably fitted. For many years Mr. Reeve held the office of justice of the peace and was wont to prevail on all disputants to settle their differences out of court whenever possible.
In the fall of 1907 the Old Settlers' Association of Franklin County held its twenty-second annual reunion and Leander C. Reeve was one of the honored guests of the function. He was down on the program for a paper on "Recollections of a Pioneer" and to the edification and intense interest of a large assemblage of people read the following carefully prepared account of the early settlements in this county :
In the fall of 1852, James B. Reeve, with Mr. Phelps, his wife and two girls about seven and nine years old, started from Trumbull, Ashtabula county, Ohio, with his team and spring wagon to find a home in Iowa. They knew very little of what part of the state they-
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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
might locate in. From Cedar Falls west there was no track further than Dr. Rockwell's, six miles from the Falls. In due time they came to Franklin county and came to the grove afterwards called Main's (Mayne's) Grove. They drove into the grove and halted at a spring by which Benjamin Butterfield located and built his log house, locating his farm on the prairie north of the grove. Soon after stopping at the spring one of the men shot a raccoon and the report of the rifle brought to them John Main and his wife Martha, with their three-year-old girl, Julia. They had been in the grove three or four weeks hunting and trapping. They had their wagon and two yoke of oxen and were about to leave for the settlements down the Iowa river to spend the winter, expecting to return in the spring and take a claim. The land was not then in the market. They held a consultation and decided that it would not be safe to leave it until spring, as hunters might discover the grove and locate a first choice of claims before spring. As a result, they decided to remain over the winter. They then drove down the stream to the lower or east side of a large bottom prairie which was surrounded with timber, except on the north side. There they built a cabin on the bank of the creek IOXI2 feet and moved in and set up housekeeping. John Main being the first man in, had the first choice of claims. He chose the south side of the grove and secured some of the best timber in the grove. Reeve chose his on the east end of the grove and Mr. Phelps took his joining Mr. Reeve on the south. When winter came on, Mr. Main took his oxen down to the settlement on the Iowa river and had them wintered. Mr. Phelps commenced building a cabin on his claim one-half mile south of where James B. Reeve afterward built his log house. He got the body of his house up, building it long and narrow, calculating for a single roof.
During that time the three had spent considerable time hunting and had killed twelve buffaloes, besides much other small game. Some time in the winter Mrs. Phelps, whose maiden name was Chil- son and was of a family far above this rough frontier life, tired of that way of living (I knew the family well and the little girls had been to school to me). Mr. and Mrs. Main were very kind-hearted people, but John Main was one of the most profane men in his lan- guage that I have ever known, and to be shut in that little cabin with such surroundings was more than her delicate character could endure and Mr. Phelps abandoned his claim and took Reeve's team and started for civilization, intending to go to Waverly, in Bremer county, where they had acquaintances. Some days after Mr. Phelps
.
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had gone, Mr. Reeve became concerned about his team, as well as about the family.
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